How we experience time

Episode of TED Radio Hour · October 23, 2026 · 50 min

Manoush Zomorodi explores how humans experience time with artist Katie Paterson, neuroscientist Irena Arslanova, conductor Robert Franz, and psychologist Philip Zimbardo.

Summary

This TED Radio Hour episode, hosted by Manoush Zomorodi and originally broadcast in May 2025, examined how people perceive and relate to time. Artist Katie Paterson described works that make deep and cosmic time tangible: a live phone line to the melting Vatnajökull glacier in Iceland, Earth–Moon–Earth, which bounced Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata off the moon, and There Lay the Days Between, a flip counter of every sunrise since Earth formed. She said she finds humanity's smallness on the cosmic clock comforting rather than upsetting.

Cognitive neuroscientist Irena Arslanova presented research on interoception, reporting that in a study of 67 volunteers, stimuli presented during the heart's contraction were perceived as shorter than those presented between beats. She cautioned that time perception is subjective and multifactorial, and suggested that attending mindfully to time, focusing on slow things, or taking deep breaths may slow perceived time.

The late conductor Robert Franz explained "Bob's four tools" for listening to classical music—rhythm, melody, texture, and visuals—illustrated with Bach, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, and Debussy, and recounted how his father became so engaged that a 30-minute symphony felt too short. The episode closed with the late psychologist Philip Zimbardo, introduced with background on the Stanford Prison Experiment and later criticism of it, whose 2009 TED Talk laid out six time perspectives and argued for an optimal balance of past-positive, future, and present-hedonistic orientations.

Chapters

0:25
Introduction and the glacier phone line
Zomorodi introduces the theme and Katie Paterson describes her live phone line to the melting Vatnajökull glacier.
4:50
Earth–Moon–Earth
Paterson explains bouncing Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata off the moon in Morse code and the notes lost on the journey.
8:00
Counting every sunrise
Paterson discusses There Lay the Days Between and her view of human life within cosmic time.
14:41
The heart and time perception
Irena Arslanova introduces interoception and how the heart's rhythm shapes brain activity.
19:02
The heartbeat experiment
Arslanova describes a study showing stimuli during heart contractions feel shorter than those between beats.
22:00
Malleable time and slowing down
Arslanova discusses subjectivity of time perception, distraction, mindfulness, and deep breathing.
24:56
Robert Franz and classical music
Conductor Robert Franz recalls his childhood love of music and introduces Bob's four tools.
28:47
Rhythm
Franz contrasts Bach's heartbeat-matching pulse with the disjunct rhythm of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring.
34:24
Melody and texture
Franz discusses Tchaikovsky's melodies and Debussy's La Mer as a soundscape.
40:44
Watching the orchestra and losing track of time
Franz compares orchestral coordination to hockey and recounts his father finding a 30-minute symphony too short.
44:32
Philip Zimbardo and the Stanford Prison Experiment
Zomorodi introduces Zimbardo, his famous experiment, and later criticism of it.
47:01
Time perspective
Zimbardo's TED Talk outlines six time perspectives and an optimal time profile.

Key points

What was said, by whom, with the exact words. Timestamps jump to the moment.

Katie Paterson
Paterson says her live phone line to the glacier was meant to collapse the distance between human time and the ancient, rapidly melting glacier.
“it kind of collapsed the distance in the time between us and our human earthly time and this ancient melting, thawing glacier”
Listen from 2:17 · Vatnajökull
Katie Paterson
Paterson notes that glacier melting has sped up exponentially and that Iceland has declared its first glacier dead.
“But now it's exponentially speeded up. I mean, sadly, it's already in Iceland. They've declared their first glacier totally dead”
Listen from 4:02 · Climate change
Katie Paterson
Paterson explains that the moon's surface and conditions caused some notes of the sonata to be lost, so the returned piece contains gaps.
“because of the lunar surface and the weather and the shadows and the moon, not all of the notes came back”
Listen from 5:41 · Earth–Moon–Earth (Paterson artwork)
Katie Paterson
Paterson says she finds human smallness on the cosmic clock comforting and grounding rather than upsetting.
“But I find that quite comforting. I kind of find it gives me some rootedness to feel like here we are part of this enormous expanse of time”
Listen from 11:30 · Deep time
Linked moment · 16:23Skip to 16:23 using a listen link in the info box.
Irena Arslanova
Arslanova argues that time is constructed in the brain but shaped by signals from the body.
“Time is constructed in the brain, but it is molded by the body”
Listen from 16:23 · Interoception
Irena Arslanova
Arslanova cautions that time perception is highly subjective, noting two people with identical heart acceleration in a crash may experience time oppositely.
“It's also really subjective, and that's why it's really hard to kind of have— a general rule”
Listen from 22:01 · Time perception
Irena Arslanova
Arslanova suggests that being mindful and attending to time makes it elongate, while distraction and absorbing fun make it feel faster.
“So it's really when you're attending to time, when you're kind of mindful and you're being present, right? That's when time tends to elongate”
Listen from 23:32 · Meditation
Irena Arslanova
Arslanova recommends taking a deep breath to slow the heart and possibly slow perceived time.
“So taking a deep breath and slowing down your heart is an easy thing to do”
Listen from 24:35 · Time perception
Robert Franz
Franz argues composers can write rhythms that either work with or against the listener's heartbeat, explaining listeners' reactions.
“listen to the rhythm and decide if the rhythm is with your heartbeat or against your heartbeat”
Listen from 29:40 · Active listening to classical music
Robert Franz
Franz says the sacrificial dance from The Rite of Spring pushes against natural body rhythm but is exciting because of its chaos.
“yes, it's disjunct and it goes against your heartbeat, but it's incredibly exciting because of the chaos”
Listen from 32:27 · The Rite of Spring
Robert Franz
Franz contends that Tchaikovsky wrote more beautiful melodies than perhaps anyone else in history.
“there was probably nobody in the history of all melody writing who wrote more beautiful melodies than the Russian composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky”
Listen from 35:09 · Symphony No. 5 (Tchaikovsky)
Robert Franz
Franz describes music as architecture in time and says a good melody carries the listener through time.
“Music is architecture in time, not in space, but in time”
Listen from 36:37 · Active listening to classical music
Robert Franz
Franz recounts that his father was so engaged in active listening that a 30-minute symphony felt too short.
“My dad was so engaged with his active listening to classical music that he didn't even pay attention to the amount of time that had taken place”
Listen from 43:44 · Active listening to classical music
Philip Zimbardo
Zimbardo describes randomly assigning participants to be guards or prisoners, with prisoners living there around the clock.
“I randomly assigned them. Half was going to be guards, half was going to be prisoners”
Listen from 45:25 · Stanford prison experiment
Philip Zimbardo
Zimbardo states the optimal time profile is high past-positive, moderately high future, moderate present hedonism, and low past negative and fatalism.
“High on past positive, moderately high on future, and moderate on present hedonism. And always low on past negative and present fatalism”
Listen from 47:25 · Time perspective
Philip Zimbardo
Zimbardo argues people automatically divide experience into time zones and become biased by overusing some perspectives.
“the problem is they become biased because you learn to overuse some of them and underuse the others”
Listen from 47:48 · Time perspective
Philip Zimbardo
Zimbardo says that after rebalancing his own excessive future orientation, he became more energetic, productive, and happy at 76.
“So at 76 years old, I am more energetic than ever, more productive, and I'm happier than I have ever been”
Listen from 48:34 · Time perspective

People

In the conversation

Manoush ZomorodiHost of NPR's TED Radio Hour
Katie PatersonScottish artist whose work explores deep and cosmic time
Irena ArslanovaCognitive neuroscientist at Royal Holloway, University of London, studying interoception and time perception
Robert FranzLate conductor and music director of the Windsor Symphony Orchestra in Ontario, Canada
Philip ZimbardoLate American psychologist known for the Stanford Prison Experiment and time perspective theory

Discussed

Ludwig van BeethovenGerman composer whose Moonlight Sonata Paterson bounced off the moon
Pyotr Ilyich TchaikovskyRussian composer praised by Franz for his melodies
Claude DebussyFrench impressionist composer of La Mer
Igor StravinskyRussian composer of The Rite of Spring
Johann Sebastian BachGerman Baroque composer of the Brandenburg Concertos
Frank SinatraAmerican singer whose songs were sung at Lou Junod's funeral

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From the publisher

Why does one hour drag by, but a year can pass in a flash? And how does our relationship with time influence our behavior? This hour, TED speakers share ideas on making the most of the time we have. Guests include artist Katie Paterson, cognitive neuroscientist Irena Arslanova, the late music director Robert Franz and the late psychologist Philip Zimbardo. Original broadcast date: May 16, 2025 Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org . See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

Summary, chapters and key points were generated from the episode transcript on October 31, 2026. Quotes are checked word for word against the transcript.

Categories: Social Sciences·Visual Arts·Music